This invention relates to television program guide systems. More particularly, this invention relates to interactive television program guides in which adult program listings information such as the titles and descriptions of adult television programs may be blocked, so that such information is not displayed to the user.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide viewers with a large selection of television channels. Viewers have traditionally consulted printed television program guides to plan their viewing. More recently, interactive television program guides have been developed to display program listings on a user""s television.
Interactive program guides are typically implemented on set-top boxes. Such program guides allow users to view television program listings in different display formats. For example, a user may instruct the program guide to display a grid of program listings organized in a channel-ordered or a time-ordered list. Users may also search and sort program listing by theme (e.g., movies, sports, etc.) or by title (i.e., alphabetically). A user may view additional information on a program by placing a highlight region on a desired program listing and pressing an xe2x80x9cinfoxe2x80x9d button. The user may purchase a pay program from the program guide by placing the highlight region on a program listing and pressing, for example, an xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d button. The user may record a program by placing the highlight region on a program listing and pressing a xe2x80x9crecordxe2x80x9d button.
In order to prevent children from viewing potentially objectionable programs, interactive television program guides typically have parental control options. For example, some program guides allow parents to place a parental control lock on certain channels. The parental control lock may only be opened by entering a parental control code. Children without access to the parental control code are not able to view programming on the locked channels. One problem with this type of system is that it may be inconvenient for parents to turn on and off all the parental control locks every time they wish to view locked programming.
Moreover, although these program guides are effective at preventing children from viewing potentially objectionable programming, there is nothing that prevents children from viewing program titles or program descriptions that the parents feel are offensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an interactive television program guide system that allows potentially objectionable program listings such as adult program titles and program descriptions to be blocked.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an interactive television program guide system in which a user may set parental control locks for certain television programming and may temporarily disable such locks.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing an interactive television program guide system in which an interactive television program guide implemented on user television equipment provides users with an opportunity to block adult program listings or other potentially objectionable material (e.g., material that might be considered by some users to be too graphic or violent). When the user invokes blocking, the program guide replaces potentially objectionable material with unobjectionable material such as a blank region, a generic title or description, or a title or description related to the channel of the blocked program listing.
The system has a main facility from which program listings are distributed to multiple television distribution facilities (i.e., cable system headends, satellite distribution facilities, or broadcast facilities). Each television distribution facility distributes the program listings to multiple users each of which has user television equipment such as a set-top box and television.
Program listings that contain potentially objectionable material may be identified at the television distribution facilities or may be identified at the main facility prior to distribution of the program listings to the television distribution facilities. Identification of potentially objectionable material may be based on ratings, keywords, channel information, or other suitable criteria. For example, the program listings for all X-rated programs may be identified as being potentially objectionable.
The program guide may provide the user with various opportunities to invoke blocking. For example, the user may be provided with options in a set-up menu for turning blocking off or on. If desired, the user may be provided with options that allow the user to control the level of blocking (e.g., based on ratings or other suitable criteria). The user may block titles, program descriptions, or both titles and descriptions.
The operator of a television distribution facility may be provided with an opportunity to block the display of potentially objectionable material with the interactive television program guide. If the operator of the television distribution facility does not invoke blocking, complete program listings may be distributed to the user television equipment associated with that television distribution facility. If the operator invokes blocking, program listings in which potentially objectionable material has been blocked may be distributed or a blocking command may be transmitted to the user television equipment associated with the facility. If desired, blocking may be invoked for all users of the program guide.
The program guide may provide access to blocked information when the user enters a parental control code. For example, the program guide may unblock previously blocked adult program descriptions.
The program guide may provide an adult programming screen that contains primarily adult program listings. If the user invokes blocking, the program guide may prevent users from accessing the adult programming screen until a parental control code is entered. If desired, the program guide may allow users to temporarily disable blocking.
The system also allows the user to set parental control locks for any type of potentially objectionable programming. The program guide allows the user to temporarily disable parental control locks when a user wishes to view locked television programming. When temporary disablement is finished, the locks that were originally set may be completely restored.